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We Need To Educate Prisoners
In Oregon, an anonymous donor helps pay for prisoners to go to college behind bars:
In the past two years, The Investor has donated $294,000 so that kidnappers, bank robbers and other felons at three state prisons can go to college behind bars.
His latest gift, just in time for Christmas this year, is $15,000 for women inmates at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville to buy books for themselves.
Oregon’s educational offerings for prisoners have been limited largely to GED classes and vocational training since 1994. That’s the year Congress stopped Pell grants for college tuition for prisoners, effectively shutting down every prison college program in the country.
While I obviously like this story, the starkness of that last line is striking. What do we think will happen to the uneducated inmate when released back into society? S/He will get a job and become a contributor to the community? Or continued ostracism will make a return to prison all the more inevitable? How does that work in the interest of anyone?
Via Inside Higher Ed.
12 Responses to “We Need To Educate Prisoners”
Prisoners' rights is such a sticky subject. On the one hand, there are so many kids and adults who haven't committed crimes who could use a leg up on their education. On the other hand, just as the post author implies (and what the author of the quoted piece seems resentful of), it does no good to society to have jail be a revolving door, and education could be a big piece of keeping recidivism down.
Just making dumb crooks into smart crooks. Waste of money.
Let'em burn.
I seem resentful? I didn't mean to. I think it's a reasonable question. I think that not educating prisoners makes them more likely to be re-offenders and leaves us all more vulnerable to a cycle of crime. I'm sure many disagree with that. But the place I typically see resentment is from crime victims and victims' advocates who believe that giving anything to prisoners takes away from just claims of retribution and punishment.
No, not at all — sorry, I guess I was unclear. The link to the original article wasn't working, so I don't know who wrote it, otherwise I would have used hir name; I was talking about the author of the quoted piece. This bit here:
…this seems to imply that the author doesn't think that the money should be going there.
Maybe if there was some reliable way to differentiate criminals whose acts came from circumstantial desperation, weren't actual socialpaths, and wanted to be a part of “civilized” society from those who were bound for recidivism.
Circumstantial Desperation of rape.
Circumstantial Desperation of murder.
Circumstantial Desperation of child molestation.
Well, I suppose its a matter of circumstance. In any case, the honest non-criminal gets nothing for college and lives a poorer life working UNDER one of these gloriously reformed jerks. Not fair.
I don't see it, I don't care. If it were up to me, I'd execute twenty times more than they do now.
See I am kinda of an extremist on this one, I do not know if I think health care is a right though I think it is in the best interest of the nation to facilitate delivery if problems arise but I think education up to your potential should be. The reason is that it is in the best interest of the nation and its economy to do so. Not that I think it will happen but at least we would be teaching people to fish instead of throwing money and screaming at them at the same time for failing when they have no skills. It's irrational, the America of myth and the America of reality are very different things but they always have been. I do think that one step would allow us to unravel many other social programs and save money while rocketing our economy back to where it once was though.
A simpler approach would be to educate those most willing to work. There's more need for genuine work in our prisons. It's not torture, unless I can describe 9 hours of my day today as torture. It's training for the outside world. It's therapy.
Those who work hard and prove themselves willing and able, why not teach the brightest of them to be teachers for the rest? Those who show no initiative — don't waste the time. The more that prisons reflect the outside world, the more prisoners will be able to live in it when they get out.
Ah, yes! I missed that. Thanks for the clarification and sorry for my confusion.
“A simpler approach would be to educate those most willing to work.”
The distinction needs to be made. There's nothing novel about rediscovering the Sixties idea of rehab and improvement of prisoners, only one part of prison reform (actually “corrections reform,” since jails of all governments are with its scope, not just state and federal prisons, which are at the top of the hierarchy). There were high hopes then. There remain problems with the system now. But the idealism is, now as then, misplaced. Not everyone is fit for rehab and improvement. The distinction needs to be made between otherwise-ordinary or normal people who “made a mistake” (Sixties-ish, too, but true), and true criminals (who have a predilection for crime, who don't respect others or society, often don't have much or any of a conscience, not to mention another problem with the corrections system, that there is a huge overlap between the prisoner population and the mentally ill, and a number of prisoners ought to be put in mental institutions instead).
It's not a general solution. The distinction needs to be made between those who could benefit (ideally, knowingly would benefit), and those who would not — not to mention that there's another issue, that of judgment, the determination of who is deserving of such things (that perhaps should, in fact, have to be earned while in custody) and those who are not.
” the Sixties idea of rehab and improvement of prisoners, only one part of prison reform “
It was a big deal then, but the concept is older, probably at least going back to the 19th century (start of Progressive era and concept of social engineering).
“Penitentiary” and “Reformatory” differ.
I like the story too, someone used their own money to fund something they believed in, Progressive or Conservative, this warms my heart. All the people that haven't chipped in for causes you believe in, but want to force others to do so instead of using your own money should take note..
depends on the person, its their responsibility to overcome the difficulties they created for themself with their criminal behavior. If someone or some private institution wants to help them by paying for them to get an education, thats fine, so long as they use their own money to do so. Prison isn't intended to be a University with free education. Now that being said, i don't mind convicts picking up a trade while working to produce for the benefit of their community. Like the old bit where they made license plates. They have debts to repay.